Crime of Saviors
by Nia Irial
Summary: Set in an alternate but recognizable United States, superheroes are a common feature of modern society. As more and more powered terrorists rise up in the cities, more heroes are relied upon to combat them, but when disturbing truths are revealed, it's called into question whether there are any heroes at all. (SYOC, OPEN)


They applied her lash extensions while she laid prone in a hospital bed.

"These are mink, that's why they're so soft and full." The make-up artist's breath smelled like strawberry bubblegum. It reminded Lana of middle school. "We'd never use fakes on you, Empyreal."

The bandage on Lana's side, beneath her annoying coarse paper gown, was itching her. Somehow, those sensations felt worse than the hole gouged out there. The medicine, probably.

She shifted a bit, lashes fluttering only in the slightest. The make-up artist's jaw twitched. "These are fake." Lana grimaced at the twinge that shot through her abdomen. "All fake lashes are fake. It's in the name."

The artist leaned back in, mouth twisted to the side. "I'm nearly done. Please close your eyes again." She stopped short. With her thumbnail, she scraped across Lana's cheek. "There was some blood left there."

Just yesterday, she was covered in blood. She'd been skewered, ran through, right there in the street. Empyreal had grinned to the cameras, wavering on The Spider's spear-like arm, slicked with her blood. Child's play, her grin said - a hero's luck, it must have missed her organs. Empyreal finished the fight, incinerating the part of the arm that held her in place, and then doing the same to the other. The Spider was taken in by the CHTF. Though mutilated, they both got to walk away with their lives. The media called it a spectacular victory.

You don't feel so spectacular, though, when you're leaking bile. The Incandesce doctors made it all better, as usual, and now she was on in five.

There was a knock at the door. Rex, her publicist, poked his electric pink head inside. "Empyreal, lookin' good." He winked. In his hand, there was a shiny black garment bag. "I've got your suit here - your fixed suit. You're on in eight."

Excuse her; she was on in eight, not five.

Getting into her suit had her doubled over. A single tear fell onto the sun symbol stretched across her heaving chest. "Motherfucking shit..."

Rex rapped on the dressing room. "Everything copacetic in there?"

She breathed in as deeply as she could. If she could get into the right mindset, she might be able to ignore the way the skin-tight material compressed her wound. "Everything's fine."

"If you say so, sunshine. Not a lot of time we're running on here."

Lana risked a glance in one of the many lit-up mirrors. There she was, Empyreal, standing...er, relatively, tall, and looking heroic as ever. Golden suit, golden hair, top half her face whited out with the usual makeup - it contrasted nicely with her thick, real mink lashes. A general feeling of sick amassing inside her, she fled the dressing room.

Rex bounced up from the chair he'd been lounging in, tearing his gaze away from his touchscreen long enough to frown at her. "Quit making that face. Why are you making that face?"

Lana didn't know she was making a face. "Nerves." She gave him the flattest of smiles. "You know I'm camera shy."

"Honeychild of mine, that's a lie, and I believe everything." His expression slid from disapproving to sly. "But I've got you, don't ever think Rex don't got you."

From his lapel pocket, he pulled out an innocently sized plastic bag. There were a handful of pills inside in all kinds of fun colors. He dangled it in the air. Lana held open her palm, and he let the baggie fall into it, her fingers closing over the cool plastic.

Screw the right mindset.

Rex pulled up his phone, fingers snapping away at the screen. "Okay, you're all set. We need to get up there and meet Echo."

There were a hundred stories at Incandesce Corporate - an entire one was a dedicated set for media people. It probably had more filming equipment than most indie movie studios. Surrounded by lights and perched on a deep blue settee in front of a backdrop was Echo Omerta, the interviewer of the hour. He was still getting his makeup done.

Rex's fingers felt a little warm on her arm. "We gave him the running list of questions that are A-okay, so he shouldn't be nosing about...the Incident. He'll mostly be chatting you up about the fight with The Spider, and the usual dribble."

After a touch of highlight was applied to his very sculpted nose, the makeup team dispersed. Echo saw them in the corner. With a tattooed hand, he waved Lana over. It didn't matter much, but Echo had always reminded her of a bird. His features were so sharp.

Rex placed a sloppy kiss on her cheek. "Go get em', sunshine."

It was like her feet weren't touching the floor. One second she was beside Rex, the next she sat beside Echo. He linked their hands, the vine-like designs on his juxtaposing her gloved ones. His teeth were whiter than hers and they made her bleach them every month.

"This is Echo Omerta on Heroes Tonight, and we have someone very special here with us, someone you all know - our golden lady, Empyreal!" His head snapped in her direction and away from the camera. "Oh my stars, I feel more beautiful just sitting next to you. Every time it's like an electric shock or something." He turned back. "Can we just-" They zoomed in on her face. "Just look at her - you look so good."

She laughed. "Thank you." Her voice sounded garbled, reaching her ears through a fog.

Echo squeezed her hand, becoming very still. "That fight yesterday morning." He stared, unblinking. "I almost died, Empyreal, when Spider stabbed you. I swear - and you can ask my husband - I almost called a cab. I was going to come down there myself."

That would have been something. Lana tried to find a response that didn't communicate how useless Echo would be in a fight. "You should have come. The Spider would've asked for an autograph or a selfie, and just forgotten all about me."

He threw back his head and laughed. "Yes, then you could melt his head off while he was distracted.

She couldn't feel her face, so she honestly didn't know if she was smiling or not. "We'd be such a good team."

Echo scrunched a manicured brow. "Ya think? Oh gosh, what would be my hero name? Oh, I know! I know it - Candyman."

That was genuinely a puzzle. "Why?"

Turning around, Echo snatched up a tray from a glass-top coffee table near the settee. "You haven't tasted my candy. Go on, try one - I made it myself."

Dotted across the tray were cute little bonbons, covered in chocolate and dusted with sugar and mint leaves. She picked one up, holding it between forefinger and thumb. "Did you really?" She licked the sugar off. It was, disappointingly, substitute.

"No." He grinned wide. "But speaking of heroes, I have to ask: is Incandise brewing up a new batch? I mean, when you were with Spider, that was pretty close, right?" She could have sworn his eyes focused on her waist. "The streets are dangerous, you need backup."

Lana's nails dug into the knockoff bonbon. She didn't want to risk a look off camera to see what Rex's reaction was. "Incandise is busy. We hardly have the time to-"

Echo's face changed, his brows drawing closer together, a wee crinkle appearing between them. "I understand it would be hard, replacing your old team, especially after what happened..."

Her ears were ringing, and Echo's words trailed to her as if from underwater. Sweat ran down her back. It was the drugs, just the drugs - what did Rex give her? She couldn't help it; she looked at him, pleading. He glared towards she and Echo from beneath drawn brows, smartphone clutched in a white-knuckled grip.

"It was a tragedy." Was all she could manage after Echo's nearly black eyes had pinned her to her seat for over a full minute. There was a lump in her throat, making her voice small. "It was a tragedy."

* * *

A/N:

Hello friends, and welcome to another SYOC. For those of you who may be new to this, SYOC stands for submitting your own/original character. Use my form, fill it out accordingly, and send it to me via PM. Not everyone will be accepted, mind you.

There's a little announcement I have to get out of the way - this story WILL NOT begin until the first week of August. I'm in the middle of my current SYOC story Siege of Gods, and it will continue to have my full attention until its estimated completion. So, I beg of you, if you submit a character don't be asking me to update in a few weeks or so. I'm only posting the intro now because I want to have my characters by the time I begin writing; that way, updates should begin seamlessly. Also, I may remove this publication here and post it on Fiction Press. We'll see.

However, if you need to message me with anything other than update inquiries, please go right ahead. I'll try to answer any questions you may have to the best of my ability.

 **Story Info:**

Set in an alternate but recognizable United States, superheroes are a common feature of modern society; however, they're entirely corporate: sponsored, branded, and bought off.

Powered individuals came about from human experimentation done by shady organizations in the 1970s. Soon realizing their study participants were gaining amazing abilities, the research was continued. Once made into a science, the FDA, on a payroll, deemed the process "safe." It was funded by bigger corporations, those could afford to make and sponsor heroes, and the industry boomed. The age of corporate superheroes was born.

Modern heroes are like celebrity cops, corrupt celebrity cops, operating based on the whims of the company that funds them. Their contract dictates most aspects of their life, including their image, their hero persona, their actions, and even their personal liberties. The heroes, and sometimes their families, live in high-class corporate housing where they are consistently monitored. Away from the eye of the media, most companies keep their heroes addicted to drugs -performance boosters, painkillers, and mind numbers - and enhancement surgeries to keep them fit for public consumption. If a hero, for whatever reason, attempts to get out of their contract they will tragically perish in action or, more commonly, take their own life due to silently suffering from a mental disorder. A company corner does the autopsy.

In the secretive and very private corporate-hero industry, there is much exploitation and seemingly a violation of rights - somehow, all within the frame of legal documents. A hero, for example, who becomes pregnant while "using company facilities" may have to cede all parental rights to that company. The child will more than likely be sent to a lab, cycled back into the hero business.

The hero in the intro is known as Empyreal, a figure made famous by her golden sun goddess persona. Her long-time sponsor Incandise Co. is currently suffering from some bad p.a. due to what they call the Incident, an incident that resulted in the loss of their entire team of heroes, save for its leader Empyreal. There's some lingering trauma.

As Echo Omerta so carefully brought up, things have been rough for Empyreal since the loss of her team. Incandesce is looking to fix that problem and distract the masses by whipping up a shiny new group of heroes, despite what Empyreal said in the interview. Guess who those heroes are? You guessed right - your original characters!

They're likely to be fresh-faced young adults looking to do some good in the world or they're just looking for glory. Afterall, being a sponsored hero is presented as glamorously living the high-life. Could be a mix of both. However, they will not know about the corruption. Corporate does a good job of keeping all that under wraps, or else they're risking it all.

Remember, powers come from the patented hero creation process, so no freak-accident or from-an-alien-planet backstories. Your character would have had to go through a lengthy vetting period; there would have been thousands of applicants - why did your character make it through?

Incandesce looks for flashy, pretty, and interesting. They're all about their image, and a corporation's heroes reflect that more than anything. Bearing that in mind, there's the form below. It's also on the very bottom of my profile page.

BASIC -

Name:

Gender:

Age: (18 to 30; the hero game is vain)

Ethnicity:

Appearance: (detailed)

MENTAL -

Personality: (very detailed, 10 sentences at the minimum; make sure they have realistic flaws! No one is happy and kind and good through and through.)

Mannerisms/Quirks/Habits:

Fears:

Vices: (gambling addiction, drug use, smoking, risky behaviors, etc)

Their view of what a hero should be:

Dreams/Ambitions:

Secrets:

Quotes: (Examples of things your character might be heard saying)

PERSONAL -

Backstory: (What made them want to be hero, any significant events in their lives, etc)

Sexuality:

Virgin: (yes or no, and who)

Have they ever been in love:

Ideal qualities they look for in a romantic partner:

Ideal qualities they look for in a friend:

Qualities of they hate/dislike in others:

What is their hero persona? (This is important - a hero's persona separates them from others, it's what makes them stand out. It also dictates how your hero is generally allowed to react in public and their heroic reputation.)

How they feel about modern heroes in general?

How they feel about Empyreal?

How they feel about Incandesce?

How do they feel about corporate sponsorships?

PHYSICAL -

What abilities did they gain during the hero creation process/what are their powers?

What are the limitations of their powers?

How much destruction are their powers capable of?

What does their hero suit look like?

How do they respond to a threat?

Are they most likely to fight with their fists or their tongue first?

How do they perceive strangers?

How skilled is your character in combat?

What is their tactical style? (Go in hard and fast, a tactician, sniper, bruiser, trickster, etc)

What is their weapon of choice? (Their powers is a perfectly acceptable response if they don't use a secondary weapon)

What living person do they most despise? (If anyone, yet)

Where do they go when they're angry?

Do they enjoy violence?

What is their heroes' code? (No harming of innocents, anything to complete the mission, lethal force is sometimes necessary, no killing ever, etc - whatever fits your character's hero persona)

Can they control their temper?

What is the worst thing they've ever done and do they regret it?

MISC. -

Songs that fit your character?

Are there any particular arcs/storylines/transformations you want your character to follow?

Anything else you would like to add or want me to know about your character?

Are you okay with your character having relationships (sexual and otherwise) with other characters?

Are you okay with bad things happening to your character? (Death, disfigurement, hostage-situation, mental breakdown, etc)

Will you review? (Yes, this is important. Why should I spend hours writing something I get no feedback on?)

Will you answer PMs should I need more information on your character?


End file.
